When the doors closed last year at the only cancer center in the Florida Keys, public officials and local residents worried that Monroe County's 82,000 residents may lose more specialized medical care in the future.
Those concerns were evident this month when the Lower Keys Hospital District Board announced it was going to convene a special committee to set minimum care standards on the Lower Keys Medical Center鈥檚 next lease. The board oversees what is Key West's only hospital and its satellite facility. Key West is home to more than 26,000 residents. The hospital lease expires in five years.
Several specialized health services can only be reached on the mainland 鈥� over a hundred miles away from Key West. That issue was exacerbated last year when the only cancer center on the island chain, GenesisCare, .
READ MORE: "Lack Of Access To Medical Care Leading People To Leave The Keys"
The new committee is set to be made up of six people, with each hospital district board member bringing the names of recommended appointees to their next meeting on Aug. 5.
The goal of the 6-person committee is to establish minimum care requirements that will be written into the next lease agreement that the succeeding hospital leaseholder must adhere to. Board members hope to have two members of the general public, two healthcare professionals and two financial experts join the committee.
鈥淥ur ideal world would have been for them to say 鈥業t鈥檚 logical that an objective comparison is necessary to pick the best hospital,'鈥� said Spencer Krenke, founder of the local advocacy group called .
But, Krenke told SA国际传谋, he views the formation of the committee as a positive step.
鈥淚 think them doing that is great as opposed to just giving a lease to the existing hospital without an objective comparison,鈥� he said.
鈥淭his is a critical issue facing our community ... we want to continue to live here, be able to age here in place and not have to travel or move away.鈥�Sam Kaufman, Vice Mayor of Key West
The move from the board comes after a public push from Our Hospital Key West, residents and a city-led task force to urge the board to conduct an analysis comparing hospital operators to the current lease holder, Community Health Systems.
Community Health Systems, Inc. (CHS) is a healthcare site operator headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee, with 71 hospitals across 15 states. CHS has from several hospitals in recent years, including three Florida hospitals in December.
鈥淭his is a critical issue facing our community,鈥� said Sam Kaufman, Vice Mayor of Key West, who also formed the city鈥檚 Hospital Lease Task Force. 鈥淢yself, my family, all of the residents here in the community, we want to continue to live here, be able to age here in place and not have to travel or move away.鈥�
The advising Kaufman is made up of dozens of local residents, many with professional backgrounds in the medical field, according to Kaufman. It formed to support the efforts of the hospital district board as it prepares to award the next hospital lease when it expires in April 2029.
Kaufman called for 鈥渁 formal, fair and transparent process to conduct a comparative analysis of potential future operators of the hospital鈥� at the meeting. He said residents are hoping to find an operator that is 鈥渂est suited to commit the financial resources, to redevelop, and modernize the hospital facility.鈥�
On May 8, the day the district board met, the room at the Harvey Government Building, which was a bigger space than the district board鈥檚 regular meeting spot at the hospital, was packed with about 80 people eager to learn more about the Lower Keys medical system and current lease situation.
鈥淔or a lot of us, 鈥榗an we live here?鈥� is a real question,鈥� said Krenke, of Our Hospital Key West. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not hyperbole, it鈥檚 not dramatic, it鈥檚 legitimate.鈥�
George Dumigan, a Key West resident of about 15 years, told the meeting that services like catheterization are difficult to come by.
He has a neurogenic bladder that requires him to self-catheter and on one occasion he had to go 21 hours without urinating when he was unable to do it himself and was forced to go to Miami for care.
"That's quite painful after a while," Dumigan said. "So then I decided I've got to get involved in this hospital thing. I have a concern that we need to get better health here."
Filling gaps in cancer care
One of the biggest topics of concern that Kaufman hears from residents, he said, was re-establishing cancer care in the Keys.
It鈥檚 been 9 months since the closing of GenesisCare. But David Clay, the Chief Executive Officer of the Lower Keys Medical Center said the hospital is currently looking into taking up that mantle.
鈥淲e are in the planning stage of putting together a cancer center,鈥� said Clay at the May 8 meeting. 鈥淭his will not happen overnight.鈥�
Clay told the crowd that hospital administration have identified a location for a potential center.
A Lower Keys Medical Center spokesperson later told SA国际传谋 that the hospital is in the middle of the 鈥渁ssessment and due diligence phase鈥� of reopening radiation oncology services.
鈥淭he work underway includes site selection and equipment evaluation, and once that is complete, we will move into the design process,鈥� the spokesperson wrote via email. 鈥淭he plans would require approval from AHCA (Florida Agency for Health Care Administration) before construction begins. During the process we will be on a parallel path to recruit the needed specialists and staff to our community.鈥�
